Why are all the networks talking about EXIT POLLING after the 2000 disaster

[bigdarryl]

I was under the impression that no more exit polling in the Presidential election was going to be done

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. wondering myself

I thought that whole biz had been proved unreliable :shrug:

[terisan]

2. Maybe they are less afraid of Bush and the Repubs now. They got them to stop exit polls

[TwilightZone]

3. What disaster?

Hasn't it been pretty well proven that the exit polls were right?

Gore would have, after all, won Florida according to almost all of the studies done afterward. If memory serves, the networks initially called it for Gore based on exit polling. Perhaps the initial data was correct.

[polichick]

4. It wasn't the exit polling that was unreliable...

It was the "official" tainted vote. We always use exit polling abroad when we're determining whether an election is on the up and up.

[LSK]

5. you mean 2004 right?

[Occam Bandage]

6. I don't know where you got that impression. They decided after '04

that they wouldn't release exit polling while the ballots were open, but they still use them to help them call races.

[bluestateguy]

7. No that's not what happened

In 2000 the networks were irresponsible with the exit poll results. Yes, Bush stole the election, but it was still tantalizingly close and the results were misinterpreted: Florida should not have been called until all results were released. I also remember the networks calling Georgia and Alabama as "too close to call" when the polls closed in those states: huh?

The networks fucked up the exit polling in 2002 and 2004, and reorganized the consortium of participants. In 2006, they also took steps to embargo the results before the polls closed. Now it seems that they releasing results before the results. The lessons are being forgotten.

[Gman]

8. What disaster? The exit polls were right on the money in 2000

especially in Florida? Care to enlighten us about something we are all apparently unaware of?

[LSparkle]

9. (sorry) BECAUSE IT WASN'T A "DISASTER"!

Those polls in 2000 were CORRECT -- GORE DID WIN FLORIDA (or would have if all the ballots were counted the way voters EXPECTED they would be).

[bluestateguy]

10. The disaster was not the exit polls in 2000. It was the networks handling of it

When exit polls show a less than 1% margin, you count the goddamn votes and don't make any premature calls.